Five Minutes to Fairytale Photos ~ Bright Idea
I think that the magic of a Disney vacation exists in three wonderful parts: the dreaming of planning, the pixie dust moments during trip itself and the memories you take with you for years to come.
Since I can't live in the Cinderella Castle Suite or even on property year round, pictures help bring a bit of the fairytale back into my everyday life.
In my enthusiastic pursuit of remembering the Magic, I take hundreds of my own pictures every vacation and hope to share a bit of my experience with you.
As much fun as the blinded in the light squinty eyed look is, sometimes it better to hit the shade.
Anywhere in Walt Disney World or Disneyland with even tree cover works just as well as more man made shade. Epcot's World showcase offers more open shady spots in the Morocco, France and especially the Japanese gardens. The People Mover and Tom Sawyer Island at Magic Kingdom also enjoy open shade. For those of us enjoying Disney's Hollywood Studios, the "Honey I Shrunk the Kids Movie Set Adventure" offers shade and downtime for the kids. Still looking for diffuse lighting? Try hanging out in the Star Tours queue beneath the Ewok village for some lovely open shade. The Discovery Island trails and the Wildlife Express Train both enjoy beautiful diffuse light for much of the day in Animal Kingdom. Just outside of the parks, the monorail and FriendShips offer scenic views, the quiet of transportation and shade. This is a short starter sampling, shade is really quite plentiful once you start looking for it! (These shady spots also double as a handy location if you're looking for a place to park a stroller for a nap.)
Back light is fun.
Feel free to play around but expect a lot of washed out pictures until you get the hang of it.
“Children are people, and they should have to reach to learn about things, to understand things, just as adults have to reach if they want to grow in mental stature. Life is composed of lights and shadows, and we would be untruthful, insincere, and saccharine if we tried to pretend there were no shadows. Most things are good, and they are the strongest things; but there are evil things too, and you are not doing a child a favor by trying to shield him from reality. The important thing is to teach a child that good can always triumph over evil.”
Since I can't live in the Cinderella Castle Suite or even on property year round, pictures help bring a bit of the fairytale back into my everyday life.
In my enthusiastic pursuit of remembering the Magic, I take hundreds of my own pictures every vacation and hope to share a bit of my experience with you.
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| Bright eyed, or not such a bright idea? |
Remember back when we talked about the golden hour? Unfortunately, as far as photography goes, magical moments occur all day long rather than evenly within an hour of sunrise or sunset.
For more beautiful outdoors photos, where you can actually see those beautiful baby blues instead of a lot of squinty smiley vacation pictures, start to pay attention to the light and shadows. Barring paying attention, anytime my kids start squinting like bats blinded by sunlight, I try another angle or look around for shade and the light source.
There are basically three conditions where more of my pictures turn out and beautiful direct sunshine just isn't one of them. Beautiful cruise conditions, beautiful day in the parks, yes. Beautiful pictures, not so much. Since lighting so much makes or breaks a picture and I've taken a couple pictures I really love here are my best bets for lighting.
Open Shade
Nature's diffuser, open shade offers the beauty of natural lighting without the harshness. Anywhere with broad shade will do, but my favorite locations on the cruise ships for this type of shade include deck four, the pool deck under the overhangs either of the adult only restaurants during brunch and my verandah.
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| Lounging on Deck 4. |
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| Not that she would ever need a nap... |
This kind of lighting is readily available all day long and is the easiest of my favorite lighting conditions to stumble upon as I can use it each trip.
Overcast
Unfortunately, Disney still is unable to control the weather. When the overcast and grey skies beckon, diffuse light (the same thing we wanted by hiding in the shade is available everywhere!
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| Overcast. Sorry for the blurry kids! They were VERY excited. |
Thank goodness for cloudy overcast days!
And now we arrive at my favorite of all beautiful lighting conditions:
Back Lighting
This lighting easily produces some of my favorite photos.\
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| Looking out to sea. |
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| Shooting Hoops |
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| Monorail, but not shady. |
Feel free to play around but expect a lot of washed out pictures until you get the hang of it.
Coloring outside the lines
As always, throw this "rule" out entirely and see what you capture! Be creative! Get Messy! Buy sunglasses! Failing good lighting, you can still get good photos by shooting your subjects at an angle to the sun so they aren't as squinty or resort to sun glasses. |
| Sunglasses, functional and vacation-y. What a bright idea! |
“Children are people, and they should have to reach to learn about things, to understand things, just as adults have to reach if they want to grow in mental stature. Life is composed of lights and shadows, and we would be untruthful, insincere, and saccharine if we tried to pretend there were no shadows. Most things are good, and they are the strongest things; but there are evil things too, and you are not doing a child a favor by trying to shield him from reality. The important thing is to teach a child that good can always triumph over evil.”
~Walt DisneySo get out there, make mistakes, get a little creative with light and shadows, try a shot that shouldn't work, but might and see what fairytale photos follow you home.
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